Originally written for my UNT MS-LS ePortfolio, Fall 2025.
Competency Fulfillment
A key competency, particularly to my career goals, is Management and Administration, and include concepts of fiduciary planning and oversight, apply just and effective supervisory practices including professional development, assessment and evaluation of library services, develop partnerships, collaborators and networks with all stakeholders and other bodies, utilize the methods of principled, transformational, and change management, and utilize leadership methods to manage projects, beginning to end, and use strategic communication with colleagues and community members. Each of these concepts were reinforced in the coursework of several courses, particularly INFO 5320: Public Libraries, INFO 5300: Management of Information Agencies, and INFO 5302, Advanced Management of Information Agencies. INFO 5320 reinforced collaboration and effective communication as a core function, evaluation of challenges facing libraries in variously populated locales, evaluation of relation to local and beyond government and library entities like state or federal, and an opportunity to review major issues facing public libraries today. INFO 5300 provided an insight to management principles and history of management, change management, and conducting research to address challenges, particularly political and financial, by utilizing public relations and strategic communication with the community and its stakeholders.
INFO 5302 instilled knowledge of different types of administrative structures a variety of libraries operate within, strategic planning, personnel and financial management, project and systems management, and community support. Public libraries in my area, particularly Garland County Library and Saline County Library, faced scrutiny, county-level political challenges, and statewide library regulatory legislation that encroached on the library functions. I was able to experience these challenges from the inside at work, read the news releases as a citizen, and address the issues in an academic setting, which was quite fulfilling and interesting. I had a three-dimensional view of the importance of strategic partnerships, strategic relationship building with community stakeholders, local leaders, state legislators and officials, as well as professional organizations that stepped in to assist. I was able to compare the experiences of the Garland County Library director succeed in relationship building to preserve the library, while his Saline County Library counterpart engaged in defensive and belligerent rhetoric which helped her be terminated.
Exemplification of Competency
My final project for INFO 5303: Finance and Human Resource Management, Comparison of Libraries: Garland County Library and Saline County Library provides demonstrable competency for management and administration. The project required quality review and research into each library’s service area, population, and economy, review and research of each library’s budget and financials, a critical evaluation of factors that impact library operations like community needs, political support/opposition, and taxation supporting library operations. A critical need for effective administrators that was highlighted in the submission was the ability to develop and support a diverse array of partners, collaborators, networks to resist state legislation from going into effect and harming staff for violating would-be Intellectual Freedom prohibitions. Also discerned and highlighted is strategic communication and strategic relationships of library administrators with local government officials, local state legislators, and the community at large.
Ultimately, the project evaluated each library’s budgets, budget breakdowns, and compared the libraries and administrative practices, but capital projects and management of those projects are also reviewed in the submission.